Your Right to Know

What is it with Ohio politicos using social media to talk about Hitler?

First it was the state school-board president earlier this year with a sidelong Facebook
comparison of Barack Obama with der Fuehrer. She later apologized.

Last week, it was state Rep. Andrew Brenner of Delaware tweeting a link to a British tabloid: “
How JFK secretly ADMIRED Hitler: Explosive book reveals former president’s praise.”

The piece purported to reveal Kennedy travelogues and letters from the summer of 1937 — he would
have just finished his freshman year at Harvard — saying fascism was “the right thing for Germany”
and the autobahns were “the best roads in the world.”

The GOP House member failed to point out that his link also led to several other stories — and
revealing photos — such as “Tori! Miss Spelling almost spills out of her bikini before playing the
doting mother as she celebrates her 40th birthday” and “Hotter than ever! Jennifer Aniston, 44,
slaps her pert bottom as she strips to underwear in racy (movie) trailer.”

Poor Steve Austria.

Last year, the Beavercreek Republican lost his congressional seat when his fellow GOP types
broke up his district.

Now, he’ll be staying at home for about three months after falling off the roof of his house.
Austria reportedly had locked himself out of the house on May 9 with nobody home, so he
climbed to open an upstairs window — and fell about 15 feet, landing on his back. He broke his
tailbone and bones in his pelvis, but did not need surgery.

Dayton-area native Douglas Shulman gave us “one of the clearest cases of providing false
information” during congressional hearings on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups,
Factcheck.org said on Friday.

The former IRS commissioner assured a subcommittee on March 22 of last year that “there is
absolutely no targeting” of groups based on political leanings, but only “the kind of back and
forth that happens when people apply for 501(c)(4) status.”

Factcheck declared: “That’s obviously false.”

Shulman said he learned the truth when an inspector general’s report was issued earlier this
month. But Factcheck noted that Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican, said on Tuesday that the
appointee of President George W. Bush should have “corrected the record, and you should have done
it long before today.”

Want to read some good war stories this Memorial Day weekend? Check out
www.aging.ohio.gov/news/storyprojects/ for the latest installment of more than 100 Ohioans taking
part in the War Era Story Project. The latest batch of 27 stories centers on those who participated
in or supported the D-Day invasion and subsequent liberation of Western Europe.
Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman of the Dispatch Washington bureau contributed to this
report.